


And then you came along, and all of that changed

by OnlySkyAboveMe



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: AU, Adoption, Alternate Universe, F/M, Implied Infertility, Mentions of Cancer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-21 22:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlySkyAboveMe/pseuds/OnlySkyAboveMe
Summary: A mysterious door and an unuttered secret





	1. Please allow me to introduce myself

**Author's Note:**

> A mysterious door and an unuttered secret

Scott is taken with her from the moment he starts working at Sampson’s Consultancy. He normally struggles to remember people’s names when they are only mentioned briefly in an introduction, but he remembers hers straight away. She is really quite beautiful, and he feels a mixture of mild lust and vague intimidation when she is introduced as an Associate Director, but he is put at ease by her genuine smile and firm handshake, both of which were unfortunately cut short when the two cell phones on her desk began to ring. She left her desk to take the call on what he assumed was her personal cell phone judging by the flowery case, whilst handing her work cell to the junior member of staff to her right.

 

He is so excited about his new job, finally taking on the title of Senior Project Manager after five years at his previous job. This is the stepping stone he needs in his career, and he had been thrilled to be offered the job at this small, but very well respected and highly praised consultancy. He feels a small pang of sadness when he is shown to his desk on the opposite side of the office to Tessa, sitting between one of the Directors, Mike, and the Junior PM he would line-managing. But he can still see her desk every time he looks up.

 

His first week is a mixture of introductory meetings, getting to know names and project locations, and a fair amount of downtime before the work really starts getting pushed his way. In those quiet moments, he watches Tessa in awe. She seems to be endlessly busy, juggling a multitude of architectural projects of her own and also helping out the Quantity Surveyors with a huge refurbishment project for a well-known department store. Yet she is never flustered, never loses her temper, never has a bad word to say. She makes pages-long lists of tasks in her Moleskin notebook, and ticks the items off quickly and efficiently. She always takes her lunch break away from her desk, going off for a walk around the block, returning with the remains of a sandwich from the deli around the corner, which she finishes whilst scrolling through her personal phone. She always has time for the trainee architects and surveyors, happily providing them answers to their often endless streams of questions. She is kind and thoughtful, respected and appreciated, clearly fantastic at her job. Scott is smitten, and he’s barely spoken to her.

 

He plucks up the courage to engage her in conversation over drinks on Friday lunch time. The younger staff like to go to a pub around the corner, and the Directors don’t mind as long as no one overdoes it. They will often come along and buy a couple of rounds on the company credit card. This first conversation is mainly about work; the projects they are working on, the dynamics in the office. He tells her a bit about his career to this point, and a little about his personal life. She tells him about why she became an architect, how she has a double masters in both Quantity Surveying and Architecture, her passion for her work and her desire to inspire and be a good role model for the junior members of staff. When he enquires politely about her personal life she checks the time on her phone and announces that she is heading back to the office. Most of the staff return soon after, following her lead to get back to work, so he doesn’t have a chance to speak to her much more.

 

The following Thursday they all go out after work for spontaneous drinks to celebrate one of the trainee’s 21stbirthday. They talk some more, falling into conversation easily. He shares his woes of finding a decent apartment to rent near the office, about how he’s thinking of renting somewhere further out and maybe cycling into work instead. He enquires about where in the city she lives, but her cell rings and she takes it outside. She comes back into the bar to collect her coat, covering the mouthpiece with her hand as she bids her colleagues farewell and apologises for having to dash off. The staff do not seem surprised by her sudden, hasty exit. One of the junior members of staff gives him the sort of look to say that this always happens.

 

She spends most of the Friday either in meetings, or typing away furiously on her computer. He watches her when he can during the day, she looks stressed, a bit anxious and on-edge. He sees her chatting to Jackie, the Office Manager, in the kitchen with the door shut as they make a round of drinks. When Jackie leaves for the day at 4pm she puts her hand on Tessa’s shoulder and says something to her under her breath. Tessa holds onto her hand and smiles, Scott struggles to read the expression in her eyes. She still has her head down at 5:30 when he takes off for the weekend, and stays late in the office judging by the emails from her that were sent well after 8pm that evening.

 

When Scott arrives on Monday morning, refreshed from a productive weekend of testing bikes and signing a lease of a flat a few miles out of the city centre, he sees Tessa’s desk is unoccupied. Whilst her desk is always tidy, this morning there is no neat stack of paperwork in the corner, no re-usable coffee cups sitting by her in-tray, just the keyboard, mouse and docking station sitting neatly together in the fashion the cleaner always leaves them in. For a heart-stopping moment he thinks she has gone forever, until he notices that the personal touches to her desk remain. She still has the personalised coaster telling her to ‘Keep Calm and Design Buildings’, still has the pressed dried lotus flower in a delicate frame on the pin board, still has the pastel coloured biros in her pen pot. He sighs with relief, but is still puzzled. She didn’t mention that she had a holiday coming up, there was nothing in her electronic diary to say she would be on annual leave.

 

As he takes his seat at his desk he catches snippets of a conversation between Mike and Jackie. “Called me Thursday night...Jon in accounts recommends putting unpaid leave on the tracker for now…she said she’d call when she knows more.” Mike sends out an email to all the staff at 9am explaining that Tessa has taken a month of leave for ‘personal reasons’ and that he will approach various line managers in due course to reassign her workload for the time being. He casually tries to pry a bit of information out of Jackie, quietly enquiring if someone close to Tessa has died (sudden family illness or death seemed like the most reasonable explanation). Jackie gently tells him that she is not her place to say anything. When he enquires whether she could at least tell him if Tessa’s alright she smiles gently, pats his hand and reassures him that she is just fine. He still feels a bit of confused and concerned, but tries to tell himself that he has no reason to. He doesn’t know her, really, doesn’t know anything about her life.

 

The month at work without her there is quiet, empty and extremely busy. He gets the feeling that it’s not only him who misses her warm smile, water cooler banter and Friday drinks conversations, let alone her work ethic and expertise. The office is different without her, and it is with great relief when he comes in one Thursday morning to find Tessa back at her desk where she belongs. She looks tired and distracted, but has a lingering smile permanently on her lips. At her desk, she has placed a frame containing a picture of a set of symbols in a language Scott doesn’t recognise. He suspects it might be Japanese or Korean, but doesn’t have time to look it up on google. He’s simply glad she’s back, and she in turn looks happy to see him again.

 

Another two months go by. During this time, they start to chat more in the office, he starts picking her brains about ideas he has, she starts seeking his opinion on the training schedule for the junior staff. At lunchtimes, they sometimes walk to the sandwich shop together and eat outside in the sunshine. They continue to gravitate towards each other during the Friday lunchtime pub visits. They talk more about Scott and his life, his family, his goals and dreams. Tessa is still never forthcoming with similar information of her own.

 

She continues to be fantastic at her job. Continues to astound him as the accomplished and dedicated architect that she is, with great vision and technical ability. She starts bringing in homemade cakes to share, helps organise a charity challenge for an orphanage in Malawi. She is different from how she was before she went on leave, but he gets a sense that this is the real Tessa, and it is confirmed as much by their colleagues who have known her for much longer than he has. It would appear that in those first few weeks that he was at the business she was feeling immensely stressed and under pressure; this knowledge and his thinking back on how she handled herself back then starts to stir serious feelings in his heart.

 

One Friday she joins them for karaoke after work. After several margaritas and a few shots of tequila the whole group of them manages to put together a seriously awful rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’; the end of which Scott fails to sing along to, being rendered speechless by the sight of Tessa dancing in time to the instrumental break. She begins to open up to Scott a bit that night in a quiet corner of the bar, whilst Mike and Jackie attempt to croon along to ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’. She talks deeply and passionately about her career and about architecture. She shares a bit about her family and her life outside work too; she’s the youngest of four, divorced parents, sporty as a child and did lots of dance and gymnastics, and it turns out she lives in a house in the suburbs not too far from where is flat is. They enthusiastically rave about the farmers’ market they both frequent on Saturdays and discuss that they have both been meaning to try out the new Tapas bar that has opened nearby recently.

 

There is a spark there and it builds after that night. She and Scott start to steal glances at one another across the office. They start to meet for coffee before work as well as taking their lunches together. They talk about anything and everything; the weather, politics, family memories, dream vacations, but rarely the future. Scott has noticed that the future tense is often absent from Tessa’s contributions to conversation.

 

Some weeks later the chairman’s 60thbirthday celebrations turn from a boozy lunch into a pub crawl and ends up in a nightclub surrounded by university students. They dance until 3am, gradually getting closer and closer to one another. It’s a dangerous dance, eyes never leaving one another, lust burning behind the glaze of the alcohol. Scott goes in for the kiss, Tessa staggers away from him, dashing out of the club and into the cold night. He curses himself for his apparent misjudgement, and attempts to make his way out of the club behind her. He finds her vomiting 12 hours’ worth of alcohol onto the pavement outside, tears streaming down her face. He manages to get her into a cab and to her front door. She won’t let him come in with her.

 

She is clearly mortified on Monday morning when they meet for coffee, barely meeting his eyes and humming vaguely as he enquires how she is. They go for lunch as usual. She apologises, blames her drinking on stress. This confuses Scott as she always seems so cool, calm and on top of all her work, but he understands that work has been busy recently and the demands placed on them all has increased. She relaxes after this, giggles at him as he recounts his hazy memories of Friday and the sight of Mike attempting a dance off with a group of twenty-somethings.

 

The spark is still there, possibly stronger than before. The next week he asks her out when they’re at coffee. She shyly agrees to go out to dinner with him on Friday evening, smiling broadly and blushing slightly. Their date is perfect, a relaxed meal and drinks at the new Tapas bar they still hadn’t managed to visit before this. They walk around the neighbourhood afterwards, Scott bravely slipping his hand into hers as they approach her house. She kisses his cheek, eyes lingering on his before she turns to unlock her door and bid him a good night. He wanders home with a goofy smile and a pink tinge to his cheeks.

 

They kiss properly on their third date, right after Tessa scores a hole in one on the 14thhole of the mini golf course. It’s sweet and spontaneous, Scott thinks it’s perfect. She invites him in for tea and cake when he walks her home that afternoon, neither of them wanting the date to end just yet. She directs him down the hall to the bathroom to wash up after being at the mini golf course. He rattles the handle of the locked door in confusion for a few moments before she hurriedly appears and redirects him to the opposite one. She glances sheepishly at the locked white door with the lotus flower plaque as she walks back towards the kitchen. He doesn’t ask about it afterwards.

 

Two weeks and three dates later he is back in her house, vaguely registering that the previously locked door is now ajar as he is tugged by the hand towards her bedroom. Scott wakes early the next morning, quietly leaving Tessa sprawled across the bed, her dark hair covering her face. As he makes his way to the bathroom he notices the open door opposite. His fingers brush the wooden plaque as he pushes it open gently. The room is painted a pale pastel pink, with a grey border near the ceiling, the plush carpet looks new, it too a shade of grey. The room is empty save for a simple white chest of drawers against the far wall. Above it hangs a small frame containing the same symbols as those on her desk at work, but underneath each one in neat cursive is written their English translations: ‘Dream, Strength, Balance’. He smiles at this, exits the room and goes to find the coffee.

 

A month later just as Scott is about to leave his flat to pick Tessa up for their date (a trip to the local garden centre to buy some plants to put into her window boxes) he receives a text from Tessa:

 

_Something came up. Sorry, I can’t do today. I’ll see you on Monday? T xx_

 

He is immediately concerned. Tessa rarely texts him, they always talk face to face or on the phone. It doesn’t feel right and he has to go over and make sure she’s ok. When he gets to her house her car is in the driveway and the front window is open, so she must be in. He rings her bell and waits, there is no answer. He rings it again, now feeling downright anxious.

 

_Tessa, are you at home? Are you ok? It’s me at the door. S xx_

 

The waits several minutes, desperately waiting to see that his message has been read.

 

_The door is unlocked. T_

Making a mental note to tell her that she really shouldn’t leave her front door unlocked (but then thinking that perhaps she left it open for him, knowing he would come over despite her telling him not to) he enters her house and looks around. She’s not in the kitchen or the living room, he makes his way down the corridor in search of her, initially heading for her bedroom. He freezes outside the lotus flower door, hearing a soft sobbing coming from the other side. He taps on the door gently, and opens it quietly.

 

Inside he finds Tessa in in the corner, sitting with her knees hugged to her chest, tears streaming down her face as she looks up at him. He doesn’t say anything and she doesn’t offer anything either. He holds her tight in the corner of this mysterious empty room, as she sobs uncontrollably against him. It comes in waves, drifting into sniffles before building again into sobs which at one point become so violent she begins to wretch and he has to haul her up and carry her to the bathroom. She falls asleep in his arms, still hiccupping intermittently, as he leans against the bathtub, pressing soft kisses to her head, his hands smoothing rhythmically up and down her arms.

 

After a while he carries her to her bed, lays her down gently and climbs in next to her. His hands never leave her and he curls himself around her protectively. He feels her stir next to him, her head turns slightly in his direction,

 

“I love you Scott,” she whispers hoarsely.

 

“I love you too.”

 

They sleep.


	2. Why does my heart cry?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa shares her secrets

Tessa wakes with a pounding headache, dry cheeks and sore puffy eyes. Her mouth is dry and tastes disgusting. She wishes this were a hangover caused by alcohol, at least then she knows it would eventually pass. This is a hangover from a phone call, one of the worst she has received in her life. She tries desperately not to think of it again, she has no more tears to shed and nothing else to throw up. She untangles herself from Scott’s sleeping form and staggers to the bathroom. She tentatively sips on a glass of water before brushing her teeth, twice. As she squeezes the second blob of toothpaste onto her brush she looks up to see Scott’s reflection in the mirror. He is leaning against the open doorway, a look of great love and concern on his face. There is no pressure though, no expectation in his eyes, no anxious desire for an explanation of what he witnesses 12 hours ago. He is simply there, in her doorway, watching over her.

 

She finishes brushing her teeth and gargles the mouthwash, then quietly turns to fall into his outstretched arms. They stand there in the doorway for a while, she’s grateful that he is tall enough for her to bury her face in his chest, rather than having to look over his shoulder at the door opposite. Eventually he leads her into the kitchen and motions for her to sit at the breakfast bar. She watches him thoughtfully as he sets about making pancakes, switching the radio on when he’s done using the whisk so as to drown out the silence hanging over them.

 

He slides the plate of pancakes in front of her, sitting down opposite with his own plate. He is raising his fork to his mouth when she speaks,

 

“I can’t have children,” she says quietly to her plate. In her peripheral vision she sees his fork stop and then lower to his plate. He clears his throat nervously, “Is that why…?” he doesn’t ask, doesn’t verbalise the question, merely flicks his eyes in the direction of the corridor down towards the lotus room.

 

“Yes and no,” she explains. “I’ve known this for a while now, well over a decade. I had cancer as a child,” she sees his face fall, sadness and shock in his eyes, “they told me that it would be highly unlikely with the treatment I was given back then. Last year I turned 30, I was alone, unattached, successful, cancer-free for 15 god damn years and I thought “fuck it, I can still be a mother” so I started looking into adoption.”

 

“A few months ago - right after you started and I was away - I was in Korea. The agency over there finally agreed to take me on. I had so much paperwork to fill out and get signed off by my lawyers. I had to dig up family birth certificates and medical records, needed to have references written and authorised. Then I got some horrific flu virus which put me in the hospital for a week and slowed everything down. I left them with everything they needed to go over and check through, they said it could take months for everything to get translated and verified with the authorities over there. My advisor here at home said it could take months to hear back, and that I shouldn’t wait around and to get on with life in the meantime. That these things can sometimes take years.” She smiles at him then, and Scott realises that _he_ is Tessa getting on with her life.

 

“My advisor called yesterday afternoon,” her voice is breaking now, tears pooling in her eyes, “she said that whilst the agency has not outright refused me, they’ve implied that I am unlikely to be considered above anyone else.”

 

She sniffs and hiccups, and Scott reaches for her hand across their cold pancakes, “Did they say why?” His question is tentative, he does not want to overstep here. She shakes her head. “She said they were not obligated to say, but in her previous experience these things can either come down to medical history or marital status; neither of which I suppose are particularly in my favour.”

 

The tears fall freely now. But this time it is anger and not sadness. Anger over an unfair system; anger that all she wants to do is love and care for a child that needs it, but is not being allowed to; anger towards her advisor who failed to tell her sooner that her history could be an issue; anger towards her body for failing her in so many ways; but most of all, anger towards herself for feeling any of these things at all.

 

Scott goes to the garden centre later that morning, and they spend the afternoon in the sunshine planting flowers and digging up weeds in Tessa’s garden. They order pizza and cuddle on the sofa watching Netflix. He convinces her to call in sick to work on Monday, and he spends a lonely day without her presence in the office. When he gets back to her house that evening she has cooked him dinner and baked a batch of cookies. She takes him to bed and they make love, quiet and gentle in the dark under the covers. As they drift off to sleep, her head tucked into his chest, his hands stroking through her hair, he whispers,

 

“I would marry you tomorrow, Tess”

 

She sighs softly against him, fingers grasping on to the front of his t-shirt, “I know you would.”

 

They don’t mention it in the morning, they go back to the present, to the parts of their lives they can control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I'm happy with this, but I'm publishing anyway. Constructive feedback welcome. I have changed the tags accordingly.


	3. Telling me to give you everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life goes on

Scott doesn’t think anyone at work knows about them, except Jackie, and therefore perhaps Mike. It’s not that they’re keeping it a secret, it’s more that they are completely professional in the office. They rarely work together during the day anyway, and they had coffee and lunch daily before they officially started going out. Tessa tells him that she thinks people suspect, but she doesn’t feel happy making some grand announcement to the whole of the office. They agree to leave things as they are and let people find out naturally.

 

The trainee staff find out first; Matty spots the two of them at the cinema one Sunday afternoon and tells the others. By the time the junior staff find out the whole office knows soon after. No one seems to be bothered by it. The beauty in working in such a small office is that everyone is friendly and knows each other well, and everyone just wants the best for one another and for there to be a general sense of happiness in the workplace.

 

*****

 

Tessa gets promoted to Director in the Autumn (Scott is offered her vacant Associate Director role but he turns it down, instead wanting to focus on the company’s internship and training programme, a decision which is better for his heart, if not for his paycheque). The whole office celebrates with an epic drinking session that ends up in the nightclub again. Tessa and Scott restrain themselves better with the alcohol this time, but spend just as many hours on the dancefloor, their eyes and bodies solely on each other. The dance is different now; one of love and trust, no push and pull, no simmering lust, in its place smouldering sensuality and confident intimacy. Some of the staff snap a few candid photos of them dancing and they are sent around the office on mass emails a few times; once as the solution for the malfunctioning heating, once as the cause of the freezer breaking in the kitchen. Scott saves one as Tessa’s contact icon on his phone, Tessa uses one as her WhatsApp background.

 

Time goes on, opened wounds heal, and things continue as they had before. Tessa and Scott go out together regularly, eventually spending five or six nights a week at each other’s homes. They go to the farmers market, travel to work together, visit each other’s families, takes vacations. They go skiing after Christmas, welcoming the New Year with a hopeful kiss on the deck of their chalet as they watch the fireworks sparkle above the snowy mountains. She asks him to move in with her when they get back from the airport, reaching for his boot bag out of the trunk and putting it over her shoulder. He gives his notice to his landlord an hour later.

 

*****

 

He proposes to her on a hot spring day in mid-May. They are having a picnic at the Botanical Gardens, sitting beneath a willow tree and watching the fish in the pond swim between the shadows of the lotus flowers. It’s spontaneous and perfect, a long-stemmed daisy filling in for the ring that sits in Scott’s sock drawer.

 

They marry quietly, but party hard and long into the night on a wet weekend in late September. They don’t go on honeymoon; work is too busy and they can't decide where to go. Instead they take a week off early in the Spring to repaint the house, strip out the kitchen, and fix-up an antique dining table they found. The white door across from the bathroom gets re-painted too, and Tessa eyes the lotus plaque thoughtfully as Scott carefully reattaches it to the white wood.

 

On Tessa’s birthday Scott’s gift comes in a large brown envelope. Inside she finds his family history and medical records, a glowing reference from Jackie and a copy of their marriage certificate. She cries for the rest of the meal at the restaurant as they talk it through, and Scott is relieved that they are sitting in a quiet corner where only their waiter can shoot them confused glances.

 

They finally take their honeymoon in September, on their first anniversary. They travel to Korea for their interview, and are able to visit the home of one of the agency’s longest serving foster carers. They do their best to absorb and understand the culture; taking part in a cookery class and 5-day language course in Seoul. They return home optimistic but realistic, not expecting to hear anything soon and not preparing for imminent arrivals.

 

*****

 

They adopt a gorgeous white ragdoll cat and her kitten from the local shelter just before Christmas; Scott unable to resist them in the advertisement he saw in the local shop window. Tessa spends the best part of Christmas afternoon trying to coax Marie out from underneath the sofa with a piece of turkey, whilst Duchess sleeps contentedly on Scott’s lap as he drifts off on in the armchair, _Singin’ in the Rain_ playing quietly on the television in the background.

 

On New Year’s Eve they hear from the agency in Korea. They’re on the list; and they’re such good candidates their information has been shared with two other agencies they work closely with. Tessa is speechless and Scott bawls his eyes out. When they return to work Jackie hugs them both so tightly Scott’s sure she left a bruise. They spend several weeks discussing parental leave and their schedules after, eventually finding a solution that fits them all.

 

Then they wait.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pacing and the passing of time is going to vary a lot between these chapters, I hope everyone is managing to follow along ok?
> 
> I've also changed the chapter titles :D


	4. And I seem to find the happiness I seek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well worth the wait

Tessa hates aeroplane toilets; they’re tiny, claustrophobic and they smell (even in Business Class). She decides they are even worse when you’re attempting to change a screaming baby in one. She lifts up a now clean and dry (but still screaming) Mia and taps the door with her foot, it opens to Scott’s exhausted but smiling face. “Happy anniversary, Tessa,” he says with a smirk and a shrug, holding his arms out as an offer to take Mia from her.

 

They had been warned that the flight could be a traumatic experience for their baby, but they were not prepared for how traumatic it would be for them. One hour in Scott decides take-off must be scary for infants as Mia screams persistently into his left ear. Two hours in Tessa is reasoning that Mia should soon fall asleep and will hopefully stay that way for most of the remaining 10 hours of travel. Three hours in Scott has bought a drink for everyone within a 6-row radius. Four hours in there is a moment of respite as Mia cautiously drifts off in her father’s arms. Five hours in Tessa is in tears as she struggles to re-settle an impossibly louder Mia who was awoken by a 15-minute period of turbulence. Six hours in Mia has vomited over herself and Tessa, prompting a kind steward to lead her to the Business Class toilet and Scott to the empty Business Class seats nearby. He profusely thanks the elderly couple who are the sole occupiers of this section of the plane, and sets about laying the seat flat and digging Mia’s blanket from the changing bag.

 

Mia finally calms down 2 hours before they land, Scott’s t-shirt held tightly in her fists as she snores delicately against his chest. Tessa is curled next to them on the seat, the residue of her eyeliner streaked down her flushed cheeks, breathing steadily against Scott’s shoulder. Scott slowly and carefully fishes his phone out of his pocket, raising it above them to take the candid shot. It’s a photo they both look back on with fondness; encapsulating the simultaneous joy and struggle of finally bringing their daughter home.

 

Tessa is nervous as she hands over their passports and documents to the border security agent at the airport, and grips Scott’s hand tightly as they are escorted into an interview room by a family liaison officer a few minutes later. She adjusts a sleeping Mia in her arms as a plastic cup of water is placed on the table in front of her.

 

“Please don’t worry about a thing,” says the officer as she sits down at the desk opposite them, pressing play on her recording device and setting that on the table top. “You are not in any trouble or in any violation of immigration laws, this is just something we are required to do by law in these circumstances. I will read through the documentation for your daughter, ask you a couple of quick questions and then you can head home.” She smiles kindly at them, eyes lighting up as Mia snuffles and changes position in Tessa’s arms.

 

She is true to her word, Scott has to give her that. They’re out in less than 10 minutes, and she personally escorts them through baggage claim and into the arrivals hall where their taxi driver is waiting for them. Tears prick at Tessa’s eyes as she sees him holding up the sign saying ‘Moir family’ for them. The officer hands the bag she is carrying for them to the driver as she wishes them farewell, just as she departs she turns back to Tessa and Scott and says, “Oh, by the way, her middle name is precious. What does it mean?”

 

**

 

The following week Mike sends an email to everyone in the office. It reads:

 

_Mia Katherine Hyun-Joo Moir came home to Tessa and Scott on the 20th of September. The delighted and exhausted parents have assured me that they will be making a field trip to the office very soon. Please send any cards and messages to Jackie, who will pass them on when she visits this weekend._

_Best wishes,_

_Mike_

_Director (Project Management) Sampson’s Consultancy_

 

Attached are two photos. The first, taken in Korea, of Mia in Tessa’s arms reaching forwards and grabbing onto Scott’s ring finger. The second is of Tessa sitting on a plush grey carpet, leaning against a pale pink wall, beaming down at her sleeping daughter in her arms, a delicate paper lotus flower mobile hanging over the crib in the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A link for you all, in case you are interested: https://www.behindthename.com/name/hyeon01ju 
> 
> Also, I love the name Mia, though I'm aware it doesn't fit with Moir very well *shrugs*
> 
> I'm leaving this here for now. I do have other ideas for how I want this to continue, but will come back to it another time. Now I really really need to finish my damn Grey's Anatomy crossover fic because it's been far too long without an update!
> 
> Thanks for reading, and for the super lovely comments. My heart soared to hear that you had been touched by it, even though I feel a total fraud writing about this. All I wanted to do was write about Scott and Tessa as average (though still extraordinary) human beings, which I hope I have done.

**Author's Note:**

> This just flowed for me today, and is an amalgamation of ideas that I had, which I have been trying to get on the page for about a week.  
> I purposely wrote it without any speech (save for the end) as I have found that it stalls the process for me. Please do let me know what you think of this lack of speech. There may be more in the next chapter (or two if it stretches that far). This chapter is really me trying to establish this AU and set the scene by allowing time to pass quickly.  
> Comments always welcome!


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